Re: Best improvements of 2014

This made a huge difference: For those that rode the shuttles in or walked/biked from the north lots-there was a completley separate entrance from those that were camping.
The craft beer barn now has given me reason to keep attending! Opening up that sorry little restaurant to the beer garden was great- real bathrooms, yay!
I had to laugh at the people waiting in line for the Heineken beer garden complaining about the price, but he was Bro so he can suck it. The beer gardens have slightly better porta potties!
The best food was the jerk chicken- next to the vegan section- and if it's cold out get a hot Arepa- we had this on our last day and were really sorry we didn't get one sooner - or ordered it with the jerk chicken!

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Sooo many great changes this year, I was really impressed with the work GV did to improve things! I think this year was by far the best in terms of organization and logistics. I almost never had to wait in line for anything, which is super remarkable for a fest of this size.

- The permanent bathrooms by the Terrace - roomy, clean, cool stalls with flushing toilets, running water and cool air hand dryers. AMAZING. This made such a big difference to my enjoyment of the festival. They were clean, nice looking (didn't jar me out of my festival fun), and there were so many stalls there was either no line at all or the line moved super fast. It seemed like most ppl didn't even realize they were there, or were in such a hurry to get to another set they just settled for the normal port-o-potties. My worst bathroom line of the wknd was when I decided to go in the Gobi area portos before Disclosure. Huge lines and everything was gross. Was really wishing I would have run back to the nice bathrooms! I give A+++ for this improvement.

- Great food vendors and AWESOME craft beer!!! $10 seemed so reasonable for those great beers, and it was never that crowded in there! My only problem was that the earth shaking THUMP of the Yuma tent made it hard to really relax in there. We went in the Cantina for the first time on Sunday and I have nothing but good things to say about it. So great to have a nice cool, 21+, relatively quiet (they were playing Outkast at a reasonable volume, so nice) place to escape for awhile. Plus, the steak nachos in there were the best meal of our weekend, seriously. Soooo delicious!!!

- Salt & Straw ice cream was ridiculously good.

- Moving the Do Lab was genius. We went over there once to check it out but it was way too loud for me, even with earplugs, so I avoided it the rest of the time. It looked cool though.

- Big improvements to the parking lot entry and exit, we always got in and out super quickly. This was previously one of the worst parts of the Coachella experience so I give huge props to them for fixing it.

- CAMP Magazine was the best ever this year. I LOVE LOVE LOVED reading it on the drive home and wish it would come out more than once a year! The caliber of writing and features is just so awesome. I really see this as going way above and beyond what they "need" to do, and I for one really appreciate the extra effort to make Coachella a truly special, immersive experience.

Things I was less satisfied with/could use improvement for me:
- The biggest problem I had was with the relentless, overly loud pounding BASS at a lot of the sets/tents. I get that it's a music festival, obviously it needs to be loud, but it was so excessive most of the time I felt physically sick sometimes. This was my 8th year at Coachella and it seemed far more extreme this year than years past. I have sensitive ears and wore earplugs almost the whole time, but they really don't do anything when the bass is so loud and booming it physically rattles your heart in your chest. This ruined quite a few sets and moments for me that otherwise I would have loved. I found myself wishing there was a tent somewhere that would just be QUIET so I could get a break from having my body battered by bass vibrations. At Pet Shop Boys I was very close to the front and had to move back/leave because I felt like I was going to faint from having my chest and eyeballs shaken so violently by the bass. The Yuma tent, Heineken House, and Do Lab were the worst offenders, I could not even WALK BY these without feeling pain Next year I intend to bring over-ear protection, but that's not going to help with the physical bass blasts, so I guess I'm just gonna have to get used to avoiding these areas completely. Such a shame!

- The record store was a joke and a HUGE let down. Why no more Zia?!?!? I can't imagine why they changed something that was working so beautifully for all those years. I found it completely BIZARRE that I could not find one single record or album by ANY Coachella artist. It seemed like a regular record store just plunked haphazardly into the music festival with no organization or thought put into what they had on display. I liked being able to peruse all the records by the performing artists and would usually buy 2-3 $20+ records of bands I like. Plus, record store day exclusives. I really hope they bring back Zia next year or seriously improve this set up for next year. Big missed opportunity.

- Edited to add: definitely more water refill stations needed.

Overall, superb job GV. I really admire the dedication to always improving every aspect of the festival and making it truly the best in the world.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Guedita, yes, big grey cement block wall between the Heineken house and Do Lab, across from the grove of lit up trees. It seems weird to get excited over something like bathrooms, but when you have as small of a bladder as me, you spend a lot of time going to the bathroom, haha. They were SUCH an amazing improvement and made normal portos seem even more unbearable than usual on the few occasions I had to use them.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Originally Posted by electrocute

Guedita, yes, big grey cement block wall between the Heineken house and Do Lab, across from the grove of lit up trees. It seems weird to get excited over something like bathrooms, but when you have as small of a bladder as me, you spend a lot of time going to the bathroom, haha. They were SUCH an amazing improvement and made normal portos seem even more unbearable than usual on the few occasions I had to use them.

Were you there weekend 2? We didn't check them out weekend 1 because they honestly looked as though they were still being constructed. Great addition indeed.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Originally Posted by guedita

Were you there weekend 2? We didn't check them out weekend 1 because they honestly looked as though they were still being constructed. Great addition indeed.

They were open weekend one. There were no signs up yet (not until Sunday)-but I was curious, and they were open and such a pleasant surprise,
on Saturday.
I also found, in addition to the bathrooms in the Cantina, there were fancy trailer bathrooms, if you walked out through the "front" door.
Never any lines-cool, clean, with running water.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Can someone explain where they had the separate entrance for shuttles/people who walked in? We walked in each day and the yellow path basically led us to the same entrance as all of the past years which was directly straight ahead from the merch booth.

The record store was a joke this year.

The drinks in the special Absolut tent in the beer garden between the main/outdoor were the fucking bomb. So refreshing with the mint. And it was a full 10oz cup too.

The craft beer garden was nice, but needs to be expanded. Sunday afternoon people were sitting all over the place and it was hard to even walk.

The Heineken House was good break from the heat. The sound booth had air blasting onto it so it was nice to stand next to it.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Beer barn (SOOOOO happy to have other beer than Heiniken), moving the Do Lab, the better food choices in the Terrace, the Gobi (Not sure if it was just me but it seemed a lot bigger than past years), security getting in.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Though not all food offerings / choices listed below seem like completely up my alley and tastes, my mind was blown just reading all the reviews & descriptions below. I am really jealous as I did not know about The Terrace until Coachella 2014 already started. I tried but failed to come on Weekend 2. I hope that it will be even better next year (as in more diverse great food and drinks choices - fusion / inspired by or cuisines from all over the world). I am really impressed that they are really (not just) trying compared to other festivals - it is probably the best right now, I want to experience it.

via Coachella.com

The newly expanded TERRACE area could quite possibly blow your minds. This area is going to feature some of the festival’s finest foods and artisan vendors. It will also be home to vendors for those of you with special dietary needs. Plus, a whole lot more you’ll see when you get there.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Originally Posted by electrocute

Sooo many great changes this year, I was really impressed with the work GV did to improve things! I think this year was by far the best in terms of organization and logistics. I almost never had to wait in line for anything, which is super remarkable for a fest of this size.

- The permanent bathrooms by the Terrace - roomy, clean, cool stalls with flushing toilets, running water and cool air hand dryers. AMAZING. This made such a big difference to my enjoyment of the festival. They were clean, nice looking (didn't jar me out of my festival fun), and there were so many stalls there was either no line at all or the line moved super fast. It seemed like most ppl didn't even realize they were there, or were in such a hurry to get to another set they just settled for the normal port-o-potties. My worst bathroom line of the wknd was when I decided to go in the Gobi area portos before Disclosure. Huge lines and everything was gross. Was really wishing I would have run back to the nice bathrooms! I give A+++ for this improvement.

- Great food vendors and AWESOME craft beer!!! $10 seemed so reasonable for those great beers, and it was never that crowded in there! My only problem was that the earth shaking THUMP of the Yuma tent made it hard to really relax in there. We went in the Cantina for the first time on Sunday and I have nothing but good things to say about it. So great to have a nice cool, 21+, relatively quiet (they were playing Outkast at a reasonable volume, so nice) place to escape for awhile. Plus, the steak nachos in there were the best meal of our weekend, seriously. Soooo delicious!!!

- Salt & Straw ice cream was ridiculously good.

- Moving the Do Lab was genius. We went over there once to check it out but it was way too loud for me, even with earplugs, so I avoided it the rest of the time. It looked cool though.

- Big improvements to the parking lot entry and exit, we always got in and out super quickly. This was previously one of the worst parts of the Coachella experience so I give huge props to them for fixing it.

- CAMP Magazine was the best ever this year. I LOVE LOVE LOVED reading it on the drive home and wish it would come out more than once a year! The caliber of writing and features is just so awesome. I really see this as going way above and beyond what they "need" to do, and I for one really appreciate the extra effort to make Coachella a truly special, immersive experience.

Things I was less satisfied with/could use improvement for me:
- The biggest problem I had was with the relentless, overly loud pounding BASS at a lot of the sets/tents. I get that it's a music festival, obviously it needs to be loud, but it was so excessive most of the time I felt physically sick sometimes. This was my 8th year at Coachella and it seemed far more extreme this year than years past. I have sensitive ears and wore earplugs almost the whole time, but they really don't do anything when the bass is so loud and booming it physically rattles your heart in your chest. This ruined quite a few sets and moments for me that otherwise I would have loved. I found myself wishing there was a tent somewhere that would just be QUIET so I could get a break from having my body battered by bass vibrations. At Pet Shop Boys I was very close to the front and had to move back/leave because I felt like I was going to faint from having my chest and eyeballs shaken so violently by the bass. The Yuma tent, Heineken House, and Do Lab were the worst offenders, I could not even WALK BY these without feeling pain Next year I intend to bring over-ear protection, but that's not going to help with the physical bass blasts, so I guess I'm just gonna have to get used to avoiding these areas completely. Such a shame!

- The record store was a joke and a HUGE let down. Why no more Zia?!?!? I can't imagine why they changed something that was working so beautifully for all those years. I found it completely BIZARRE that I could not find one single record or album by ANY Coachella artist. It seemed like a regular record store just plunked haphazardly into the music festival with no organization or thought put into what they had on display. I liked being able to peruse all the records by the performing artists and would usually buy 2-3 $20+ records of bands I like. Plus, record store day exclusives. I really hope they bring back Zia next year or seriously improve this set up for next year. Big missed opportunity.

- Edited to add: definitely more water refill stations needed.

Overall, superb job GV. I really admire the dedication to always improving every aspect of the festival and making it truly the best in the world.

Instead of Zia, there should be an Amoeba Record store at Coachella with the much missed artist signings.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Originally Posted by electrocute

- The record store was a joke and a HUGE let down. Why no more Zia?!?!? I can't imagine why they changed something that was working so beautifully for all those years. I found it completely BIZARRE that I could not find one single record or album by ANY Coachella artist. It seemed like a regular record store just plunked haphazardly into the music festival with no organization or thought put into what they had on display. I liked being able to peruse all the records by the performing artists and would usually buy 2-3 $20+ records of bands I like. Plus, record store day exclusives. I really hope they bring back Zia next year or seriously improve this set up for next year. Big missed opportunity.

The row of records along the wall of the store that the entrance/exit were on were all brand new vinyl of Coachella artists old and new, and alphabetized. But yes, the used records taking up 90% of the store were a joke. Seemingly no organization whatsoever.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Staff & security was great this year. I'm sure it can suck standing in that heat all day and dealing with the massive amount of people coming through, but they seemed to keep a great attitude.

I'm digging all the love for Portland's Salt & Straw and Stumptown Coffee. The funny thing is that in Portland, if you want Salt & Straw, you have to stand in a line around the block waiting 15-20 minutes just to get in. At Coachella, I got to just walk up with no line. You won't understand how novel and amusing this is unless you're a Portland resident, but just take my word for it. Maybe they'll bring down Voodoo Donuts next year.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Originally Posted by CaseSensitive

•The openness of polo grounds with the relocation of the DoLab, it felt easier to move around than it did last year.
•Security was much friendlier.
•Really helpful and stoked event staff. High fiving everyone, saying positive things to people walking by, et cetera
•More people aged 30+
•I honestly have no complaints about the structure of this year's event.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

- The slight expansion of the beer garden that's in between the Main and Outdoor. Make it BIGGER on both sides next year, it's nice to watch sets by drinking a beer.

It's not nice when youre trying to get the hell out of there and that space is taken up by the beer garden expansion. They need to figure that out some more, because it was stupid when Pharrell, Lana Del Rey, Lorde and Disclosure were playing.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

The Gobi enhancements were awesome. Not just the chandeliers, but in past years, it would no longer be a refuge of shade after 4pm since the sun would be shining through the back half of the tent.

Originally Posted by superfan

It's not nice when youre trying to get the hell out of there and that space is taken up by the beer garden expansion. They need to figure that out some more, because it was stupid when Pharrell, Lana Del Rey, Lorde and Disclosure were playing.

The biggest fight for my life all weekend was trying to leave the bathroom area next to the Outdoor right before Lorde was about to start.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

They tried to improve the campground bathrooms by moving them all to one central location, but it didn't help those who were close to the entrance and had to walk to the freaking camping center to take a piss. Huge pain in the ass. Also, guys had to walk literally 150 extra steps (I counted) past the girls entrance. It was way too far for people in the first few lanes and resulted in a lot of peeing in bottles.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Originally Posted by clleadz

Those who say the bathrooms were better obviously weren't the people shafted in Lot 4. The bathrooms there were horrendous, we arrived at 1pm and were sent to the very farthest corner of the entire festival.

Same thing happened to us. We got in line relatively early (to get a good lot) and they still directed us to 4. Lead us to think that it wasn't the time that you got there that determined what lot you ended up in. It seemed that they were trying to fill the lots evenly throughout the day. Cars would come in, then stop for 20-30 minutes, then start coming in again :-/

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Originally Posted by idrive1life

Though not all food offerings / choices listed below seem like completely up my alley and tastes, my mind was blown just reading all the reviews & descriptions below. I am really jealous as I did not know about The Terrace until Coachella 2014 already started. I tried but failed to come on Weekend 2. I hope that it will be even better next year (as in more diverse great food and drinks choices - fusion / inspired by or cuisines from all over the world). I am really impressed that they are really (not just) trying compared to other festivals - it is probably the best right now, I want to experience it.

My guess is that we'll see new pop up restaurants in the Terrace (maybe because they want to rotate them out and give others a shot), but every time I walked by they were all not that busy; Some had to have lost money going out there for the weekends. SOOO many people didn't realize all the new stuff in the Terrace. I'd walk by huge lines of people waiting for crappy food while very few were straying past the Beer Barn to these pop ups literally giving away food.

Re: Best improvements of 2014

Moving the do lab definitely made it much easier to walk from the mainstage to the mojave/sahara. Only time I felt a little claustrophobic was leaving fatboy slim's set. Otherwise major kudos for clearing the space to allow people to move more freely and efficiently around the fields.

Shuttle experience was great except for the fact that they didn't utilize all the seats on the buses, which made for longer lines. I'm sure they just wanted to make sure that every bus had people on it so that they didn't waste any of the drivers time but still this made for long lines for us to get home.

Staff this year was super helpful and enthusiastic. Only issue I had was twhen the staff advised me on things that they knew nothing about. For example, I asked one of the staff members when the shuttles start running in the morning. He said at 8 am they have shuttles and taxi's that can take you from the festival to you're respective hotel. With that assumption my friends and I partied at the campgrounds till 5 am only to wake up at 7:30 to get a ride back to our hotel. Problem was that there were no shuttles nor taxi's ready to service us. We should of known better to look at the website to see the hours of operation but still the staff should be aware of their own production.